Stocking Stuffers and Miscellany
To badly paraphrase Mies van der Rohe: “Gosh” is in the details. The bits and pieces, the odd little items, the amusing and unexpected stuff that fall under the category “stocking stuffer” are often the most welcome gifts. They’re often the most fun to shop for, too.
Sandee Cohen: I’ve already been giving away ScreensavRz ($10) available from www.radtech.us. These thin cloths lay between a PowerBook or iBook keyboard and the LCD screen to protect the screen from the oils deposited on the keys. Finally, for my aging eyes, I need a few Bausch & Lomb Magna-Page magnifiers left all around my house to help me read.
Pamela Pfiffner: I think back to an article David Morgenstern wrote earlier this year about cleaning your computer. Put together a cleaning kit containing some cans of compressed air, a keyboard brush, and a mini-vacuum cleaner for getting into those tiny crevices. Monitor wipes come in handy, too.
Also, I discovered much too late that Titanium PowerBooks are prone to unsightly wear and tear on its exterior beveled case, resulting in chipped paint. The warranty doesn’t cover fixing it, but you can buy touch-up paint from TiPaint ($12.95 for single color; $19.95 for the set). Sooner or later your TiBook-toting friends will need this.
Eric J. Adams If we’re talking practical: memory cards, because the digital photographer/MP3 lover can never have enough MBs on hand; and a gift certificate to Netflix, the online DVD rental site.
Pamela Pfiffner: Speaking of DVDs, I think the following DVD documentaries would be great for the budding — or even established — photographer on your list:
- Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light;
- Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye;
- National Geographic: The Photographers.
Those who appreciate fine photography should also consider a print by Stephen Johnson. This photographer of the natural world uses only digital technologies — high-resolution cameras, Adobe Photoshop, archival-ink printers — to produce beautiful prints with stunning detail and tonal gradation (see figure 8). Prices range from $195 for an 11×14-inch print to $1,500 for a 20×25-inch print. View the gallery of available images here.
Figure 8: Stephen Johnson’s photograph of Bridalveil Falls displays the subtlety for which his digital prints are known.
David Morgenstern: Late at night recently the lights went out in my office and the surrounding neighborhood. It was really dark and I stumbled around a bit before I found a flashlight. It glowed weakly and then went out. Thankfully, I didn’t knock over the digital camera or printer in the dark.
Following that experience, I checked out flashlights and discovered this venerable technology has entered the modern age. Instead of the traditional incandescent bulb, these next-generation flashlights use an array of light-emitting diodes (LED).
These lights have several advantages over the previous generation: low power requirements and reliability — as far as I know LEDs don’t burn out and most are guaranteed to run continuously for 11 years. However, they cost a lot.
I chose the $33 Lightwave 2100, which has a 4-LED array and uses three AA batteries. Reviews tell that a set of batteries will last more than 40 hours of continuous use.
Pamela Pfiffner: Give the font fan on your list real metal type or wooden printing blocks, like those used in advertising. You can find great ones on Ebay — the Printing Equipment category is a good place to start, then poke around through the Type, Fonts, Clip Art section.
For Beautiful Books, turn the page.
This article was last modified on January 3, 2023
This article was first published on December 4, 2002
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